Let's be clear. This is a car. Four wheels. It weighs 225 kg empty and you can add up to 200 kg of cargo. That's not an electric bike, as the manufacturer claims it is. This is a small car that occupies and blocks the bike lane. This concept shouldn't exist. Us cyclists already have to deal with bad infrastructure. I see this as a provocation, not as the positive change it pretends to be. Such vehicles belong on the road, not the bike lane.
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The intention is made clear by the manufacturer. This vehicle is specifically designed to be used on bike lanes, to avoid being stuck in car traffic. In practice this obviously means it'll block the bike lane or sidewalk while delivery is done, which can take minutes.
"Designed for Cycling infrastructure
eQuad Width 36 inches (910 mm)"
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For us (older?) Europeans it is hard to see why this monstrosity is a bike when we associate this kind of vehicle with the Piaggio Ape (soon coming back es electric vehicle, the Fiat Tris) which is of similar size but is classified as car (or motorbike, depending on version and country) and of course not allowed to use the bike lane.
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Addendum: yes, I know, in Germany the Ape in the 25 km/h max version is allowed to use the bike lane, but that version is very rarely seen anymore. And even when it was on the streets back in the 1960s/70s, that was also the time of far less bike lanes available.
Addendum 2: Do you really think something like this belongs on the bike lane? (Picture source: https://fernhay.com/equad-and-the-circular-economy-green-cities-in-action/ )
@jwildeboer would probably hope it has better tyres and brakes than it looks like it does.
But would probably agree that quadracycles should not really be in bike lanes. Guess it's an area where law needs to keep up, to stop these things fitting in the gaps.
